The present invention is directed to a method and system for beverage manufacturing and in particular to hot fill beverage manufacturing. More specifically, the present invention is in a field wherein beverages are prepared having a variety of different flavors and/or other additives. The invention is more particularly directed to a method for manufacturing a beverage wherein a selected flavor is added into containers, either before, during or after the containers are hot filled with a common base.
Many beverages are offered in a variety of flavors. In many such instances, a base beverage formula is varied by having variations in flavor, color or possible other additives being made to the base formula so as to achieve the multiple flavor array of beverages. As explained infra, with all such beverages, how and when these flavors and additives are added to the base formula is related to a number of different criteria and conditions.
With any such beverages which are intended for wide distribution, shelf stability and/or bacterial control are important considerations for these products, especially those which need not be stored or displayed under refrigeration. Products of this type can fall into two broad categories. The first category are beverages which are filled into containers when the beverages are at elevated temperatures. Often these are referred to as hot filled beverages. The other category are beverages which are not filled hot but instead include a preservative component or composition. Thermal processing of beverages is considered advantageous as it stabilizes a formula microbiologically, while maintaining most of the desired sensory qualities. In contrast, preservatives formulations often have negative sensory attributes. The present invention is particularly directed to the thermally processed beverages.
Hot filling is designed for packaging of liquids which must be placed in the container while hot to provide for adequate extended shelf life in accordance with well-known principles. Usually this involves the use of heat to pasteurize or commercially sterilize the product. Typically, the heat effectively commercially sterilizes the beverage immediately prior to it being placed in the container. While the beverage is still hot, the container is filled with the hot, sterilized beverage. This also has the effect of commercially sterilizing the container. After the usual hot filling events, the container then is capped. Currently, there are two widely used methods and systems typically used for producing hot filled beverages.
One of these methods and systems is shown in FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 3, a complete beverage 110 is prepared with all the ingredients for the beverage. By this stage, a syrup and/or total additive package is added to a liquid, or liquids, such as for example water, in order to fully make up the beverage. For example, in an isotonic sports beverage, an additive package, that includes the sugars or carbohydrates, such as glucose, fructose and sucrose, electrolytes, flavor and color in the composition, is added to water and stirred or blended together. Other ingredients, such as for example, citric acid, would also be included, if desired in the final product. The composition then is sent to be thermally processed by suitable heating equipment. During such thermal processing, the temperature of the beverage is elevated to approximately 168xc2x0 F.-200xc2x0 F. (75.5xc2x0 C. to 93.33xc2x0 C.), preferably 170xc2x0 F.-190xc2x0 F. (76.67xc2x0 C. to 87.77xc2x0 C.), approximately for 3 seconds to 1 minute. Heat exchangers can be used to heat and hold the beverage at a certain temperature. The thermally processed hot beverage then is sent to a filler 114 such as a rotary filler generally known in the art which fills the container 116 with the hot beverage. Other types of fillers, such as for example linear fillers, volumetric fillers, pressure or gravity fillers could also be used. The hot filled container then travels down the assembly line, such as a conveyer mechanism, where eventually a cap is placed on the container by a capper 118. Labeling and/or packaging typically follows.
In another method and system (not shown), is a continuous process. In this process, the beverage will flow through a main pipe. Streams are connected to the main pipe for adding ingredients to the mixture, e.g. a sugar stream, a flavor stream, etc. The ingredients are combined in the pipe. The complete formula is combined together prior to being thermally processed. Thereafter, the method and system is the same as the first method described above. Hence, in order to make a flavor change, the pipe, thermal processing unit and hot filler all need to be cleaned before a new flavored beverage can be produced.
Both of these methods and systems have a number of drawbacks. In particular, because the complete beverage travels through the thermal processing and the hot fill equipment in such prior art approaches, all of this equipment has to be shut down and cleaned whenever there is a flavor change. Further, only one flavor can be produced at a time. For example, if a lemon flavored drink is being made and an orange flavored drink is scheduled to be made thereafter, the line needs to be shut down to clean all of the lemon flavor from the product mixing equipment, thermal processing equipment and hot fill equipment before the orange flavored drink can be produced. Otherwise, the orange flavored drink will not taste right and/or will not give a consistent product over the run for this beverage. This results in significant down time of the production line. For example, a typical line could have 3 or 4 or more flavor changes a day, with each flavor change having a typical down time of 20-40 minutes. Hence, somewhere between 1-2.5 hours or more of a typical production shift are wasted down time.
Furthermore, because the beverage with flavor therein is thermally processed in typical existing flavored beverage production, some of the flavor in the beverage is lost, damaged or otherwise modified during heating. Flavor loss also can occur in the bottle handling stage between the filling of the beverage container and the capping of the container. This occurs as the bottles travel along a conveyer mechanism which, in the usual high-speed bottling line, creates a centrifugal force in the bottle and causes spillage, particularly of the flavored complete formulation. As a result, the flavor in the beverage is not as strong as desired due to flavor loss prior to capping.
Furthermore, most flavors degrade within 10-15 minutes. Therefore, usual good manufacturing practices place a 10 to 15 minute limit on recirculation of beverages which are flavored. This can result in requiring a new batch to be prepared prematurely and due solely to a concern for flavor degradation.
Multi-stage processing has been used in the milk industry to produce various types of milk. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,779 (Andersson et al.) discloses a fill system for filling a container with a primary product, such as skim milk, and a secondary product, such as cream, to produce milk products having a selected one of several milkfat concentrations. U.S. Pat. No. 6,247,507 (Sochnlen et al.) discloses a system for milk production wherein raw milk is subjected to a heat treatment (pasteurization) and then high fat and skim milk are separated from the raw milk. The skim milk and high fat are then combined in the desired proportions. The Sochnlen et al. patent states that the invention relates to beverage processing which involves milk, juices, fruit drinks and chocolate milk. Such references, however, are not directed to hot fill applications, to products having preservative components, or combinations thereof, nor are such references concerned with beverages having microbiological stability or shelf stability or to storage/display without refrigeration.
The present invention is directed to a method and system for overcoming these drawbacks in the context of an arrangement which produces multiple products having different flavors and possible other characteristics. These products exhibit shelf stability qualities allowing them to be stored and displayed under room temperature and/or non-refrigerated conditions.
The present invention is directed to a method or process and a system for producing a flavored beverage wherein the flavor is added in a separate step to a combination of the base ingredients of the beverage. In a preferred embodiment, the base ingredients are combined together, thermally processed and hot filled into a container. The flavor is then added to the hot filled base in the container. In an alternative embodiment, the base ingredients are combined together and thermally processed. The flavor is added to the empty container and then the thermally processed ingredients are hot filled into the container with the flavor already therein. Capping or sealing of the container typically follows these steps. The invention is also directed to the product of this process.
The method and system of the present invention reduce down time for a flavor change in an industrial-scale bottling operation, as only the flavor dosing apparatus needs to be cleaned and not the whole system.
The method and system of the present invention also reduce flavor loss between flavor addition, filling and capping, as there is little handling of the containers filled with the flavored beverage and little time between these steps. Further, the dosing can occur after the containers have traveled down the conveyer line, where spilling typically occurs, and immediately prior to capping. As a result, the beverage produced by this method has better flavor.
The method and system of the present invention also allow for the production of more than one flavor on the same production line. For example, two or more flavor dosing assemblies could be used on the same line, each dosing assembly being charged with a flavor system different from the other doser or dosers.
The method and system of the present invention eliminates loss of flavor during thermal processing as the flavor is added after thermal processing. As a result, the beverage produced by this method has better flavor.
The method and system of the present invention can also be used to add other ingredients which may be heat sensitive but which do not require thermal processing.
With the method and system of the present invention, the filling process recirculation time limitation for flavored beverages not according to the invention is relaxed for the beverage base according to the invention, as there is no longer any worry about flavor degradation.
With the method and system of the present invention, flavor can be purchased and used in bulk which is more cost effective.